Communique system for cellular communication networks

ABSTRACT

The communique system for cellular communication networks operates with existing cellular communication networks to provide communique communication services to subscribers. The communique can be unidirectional (broadcast) or bidirectional (interactive) in nature and the extent of the communique can be network-wide broadcast or narrowcast, where one or more cells and/or cell sectors are grouped to cover a predetermined geographic area or demographic population or subscriber interest group to transmit information to subscribers who populate the target audience for the narrowcast transmissions. The content of these transmissions can be multi-media in nature and comprising a combination of various forms of media: audio, video, graphics, text, data and the like. The subscriber terminal devices used to communicate with the communique system for cellular communication networks are typically full function communication devices that include: WAP enabled cellular telephones, personal digital assistants, Palm Pilots, personal computers, and the like or special communique only communication devices that are specific to communique reception; or MP3 audio players (essentially a radio receiver or communique radio); or an MPEG4 video receiver (communique TV); or other such specialized communication device. The subscriber terminal devices can either be mobile wireless communication devices in the traditional mobile subscriber paradigm, or the fixed wireless communication devices in the more recent wireless product offerings. Furthermore, these communique communication services can be free services, subscription based services, or toll based services, while the data propagation can be based on push, pull and combinations of push/pull information distribution modes.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to cellular communication networks and to acommunique system that makes use of the bandwidth capacity in existingpoint-to-point cellular communication networks to provide subscriberswith access to a plurality of broadcast and narrowcast based services.

PROBLEM

It is a problem in cellular communication networks that the networktopology is exclusively point to point in nature. This paradigmrepresents the historical view of cellular communications as a wirelessequivalent of traditional wire-line telephone communication networks,which serve to interconnect a calling party with a called party. Anadditional problem in cellular communication networks is that the needto concurrently serve many voice subscribers with the limited bandwidthavailable in cellular communication networks has prevented the provisionof wide bandwidth communication services, such as data, to thesesubscribers.

The third generation (3G) wireless communication systems, as specifiedby the ITU/IMT-2000 requirements for cellular communications, representa step toward solving the above-noted problems. The third generationwireless communication systems support the provision of advanced packetdata services. In 3G/IMT-2000 systems, dynamic Internet Protocol addressassignment is required in addition to static Internet Protocol (IP)address assignment. With static IP address assignment, the wirelesssubscriber station's static IP address is fixed and assigned by the homewireless network. When the wireless subscriber station is away from itshome wireless network (roaming), a special data communications link(Wireless IP tunnel) needs to be established between the visitedwireless network and the home wireless network. In this case, IP packetsdestined to the wireless subscriber station's IP address of the homewireless network are routed to the home wireless network according tostandard IP routing. A Wireless IP tunnel is used in the home wirelessnetwork to redirect the IP packets that are destined to the wirelesssubscriber station's static IP address to the visited wireless networkwhere the roaming wireless subscriber station is located and beingserved. When a wireless subscriber station moves from one wirelessnetwork coverage area to another, Wireless IP mobility binding updatesare performed between the wireless subscriber station and its Home Agent(HA) in the home wireless network. Since both the wireless station's IPaddress and its Home Agent IP address are static or fixed, a sharedsecret between the wireless subscriber station and the Home Agent can bepreprogrammed into the wireless station and its Home Agent so that theHome Agent can authenticate Wireless IP registrations requested by thewireless subscriber station and perform mobility binding updates in asecure manner.

However, even with advances in bandwidth utilization and the provisionof packet data services, the cellular communication networks stilloperate on a point to point paradigm, with the networks being unable toconcurrently communicate data to a plurality of subscribers, which isthe fundamental concept of broadcast communications, especially in thecase of a dynamically changing audience for the broadcasts.

SOLUTION

The above described problems are solved and a technical advance achievedby the communique system for cellular communication networks thatoperates with existing cellular communication networks to providecommunique communication services to subscribers. The Communique can beunidirectional (broadcast) or bidirectional (interactive) in nature andthe extent of the Communique can be network-wide broadcast ornarrowcast, where one or more cells and/or cell sectors are grouped tocover a predetermined geographic area or demographic population orsubscriber interest group to transmit information to subscribers whopopulate the target audience for the narrowcast transmissions. Thecontent of these transmissions can be multi-media in nature andcomprising a combination of various forms of media: audio, video,graphics, text, data and the like. The subscriber terminal devices usedto communicate with the communique system for cellular communicationnetworks are typically full function communication devices that include:WAP enabled cellular telephones, personal digital assistants, PalmPilots, personal computers, and the like or special communique onlycommunication devices that are specific to communique reception; or MP3audio players (essentially a radio receiver or communique radio); or anMPEG4 video receiver (communique TV); or other such specializedcommunication device. The subscriber terminal devices can either bemobile wireless communication devices in the traditional mobilesubscriber paradigm, or the fixed wireless communication devices in themore recent wireless product offerings. Furthermore, these communiquecommunication services can be free services, subscription basedservices, or toll based services, while the data propagation can bebased on push, pull and combinations of push/pull informationdistribution modes.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

FIGS. 1A & 1B illustrate in block diagram form the overall architectureof a typical cellular communication network that is equipped with thepresent communique system for cellular communication networks;

FIG. 2 illustrates in flow diagram form the operation of a typicalcellular communication system in implementing an idle handoff mode ofoperation;

FIG. 3 illustrates in block diagram form a typical configuration of thebase to end user forward CDMA channel used in cellular communicationnetworks;

FIG. 4 illustrates in block diagram form a typical assignment of cellsin a cellular communication network for a unidirectional transmissionwithout subscriber registration mode of operation of the presentcommunique system for cellular communication networks;

FIG. 5 illustrates in block diagram form a typical configuration of thebase to end user forward CDMA channel used in cellular communicationnetworks;

FIG. 6 illustrates in block diagram form a typical assignment of cellsin a cellular communication network as an example of the operation ofthe present communique system for cellular communication networks;

FIG. 7 illustrates in block diagram form a typical assignment of cellsin a cellular communication network for a non-interactive bidirectionaltransmission with subscriber registration mode of operation of thepresent communique system for cellular communication networks;

FIG. 8 illustrates in block diagram form a typical signaling protocolfor a Traffic channel for use in the present communique system forcellular communication networks;

FIGS. 9 & 10 illustrate typical dynamic coverage areas for various typesof communique transmissions;

FIG. 11 illustrates in flow diagram form the operation of theSpatial-Temporal Content Manager;

FIG. 12 illustrates a typical program coverage pattern;

FIG. 13 illustrates a typical program stream for a plurality ofcommunication channels; and

FIG. 14 illustrates in tabular form a typical definition of a pluralityof narrowcasts applicable to the program streams of FIG. 13 as appliedto the typical dynamic coverage areas of FIGS. 9 & 10.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Existing cellular communication networks are designed with a networktopology that is exclusively point to point in nature. This paradigmrepresents the historical view of cellular communications as a wirelessequivalent of traditional wire-line telephone communication networks,which serve to interconnect a calling party with a called party. Theneed to concurrently serve many voice subscribers with the limitedbandwidth available in cellular communication networks has alsoprevented the provision of wide bandwidth communication services tothese subscribers. These existing systems are largely static in theiroperation, with each cell providing point to point communications to apopulation of subscribers who reside in or roam into the predefinedservice area of the cell. There is an absence of a capability to providea communication service to a subscriber population that comprises adynamically changing coverage area that spans multiple cells. Thedynamic convergence of a plurality of subscribers to constitute a targetaudience for Communiques is a paradigm that is not addressed by existingcellular communication systems, nor is there any functionality suggestedin existing cellular communication systems to deal with providinginformation relevant to this target audience in a real time manner.

Cellular Communication Network Philosophy

Cellular communication networks as shown in block diagram form in FIGS.1A & 1B, provide the service of connecting wireless telecommunicationcustomers, each having a wireless subscriber device, to both land-basedcustomers who are served by the common Carrier Public Switched TelephoneNetwork (PSTN) 108 as well as other wireless telecommunicationcustomers. In such a network, all incoming and outgoing calls are routedthrough Mobile Telephone Switching Offices (MTSO) 106, each of which isconnected to a plurality of cell sites (also termed Base StationSubsystems 131-151) which communicate with wireless subscriber devices101,101′ located in the area covered by the cell sites. The wirelesssubscriber devices 101, 101′ are served by the cell sites, each of whichis located in one cell area of a larger service region. Each cell sitein the service region is connected by a group of communication links tothe Mobile Telephone Switching Office 106. Each cell site contains agroup of radio transmitters and receivers (Base Station Transceiver 132,142, 143, 152) with each transmitter-receiver pair being connected toone communication link. Each transmitter-receiver pair operates on apair of radio frequencies to create a communication channel: onefrequency to transmit radio signals to the wireless subscriber deviceand the other frequency to receive radio signals from the wirelesssubscriber device. The first stage of a cellular communicationconnection is set up when a transmitter-receiver pair in a cell site131, operating on a predetermined pair of radio frequencies, is turnedon and a wireless subscriber device 101, located in the cell site 131,is tuned to the same pair of radio frequencies to thereby activate acommunication channel between the wireless subscriber device 101 and thecell site 131. The second stage of the communication connection isbetween the communication link connected to this transmitter-receiverpair and the common carrier Public Switched Telephone Network 108. Thissecond stage of the communication connection is set up in the MobileTelephone Switching Office 106, which is connected to the common carrierPublic Switched Telephone Network 108 by incoming and outgoing trunks.The Mobile Telephone Switching Office 106 contains a switching network106N to switch wireless subscriber voice and/or data signals from thecommunication link to an incoming or outgoing trunk. The MobileTelephone Switching Office 106 and associated software typically managesthe base station controllers 132,142,152 and the Base StationTransceiver Transmit/Receive electronics which serve to implement thewireless radio frequency link to the wireless subscriber devices 101.The Mobile Telephone Switching Office 106, in conjunction with the HomeLocation Register (HLR) 161 and the Visitor Location Register (VLR) 162,manages subscriber registration, subscriber authentication, and theprovision of wireless services such as voice mail, call forwarding,roaming validation and so on. The Mobile Telephone Switching OfficeController 106C also controls the actions of the associated base stationcontrollers 132, 142, 152 by generating and interpreting the controlmessages that are exchanged with the associated base station controllers132, 142, 152 over data links that interconnect these subsystems. Thebase station controllers 132, 142, 152 at each cell site 131-151, inresponse to control messages from the Mobile Telephone Switching Office106, control the transmitter-receiver pairs at the cell site 131. Thecontrol processes at each cell site also control the tuning of thewireless subscriber devices to the selected radio frequencies. In thecase of CDMA, the system also selects the PN code word to enhanceisolation of the communications with the wireless subscriber devices.

Each cell in the cellular communication network comprises apredetermined volume of space radially arranged around the cell sitetransmitting antenna with the region of space roughly approximating acylindrical volume having predetermined height. Since all of thewireless subscriber devices are installed in ground-based units (such asmotor vehicles or handheld units) in traditional cellular communicationsystems, the antenna radiation pattern of the cell site is aligned to beproximate to the ground and the polarization of the signals produced bythe cell site antenna is vertical in nature. In order to prevent theradio signals in one cell site from interfering with radio signals in anadjacent cell site, the transmitter frequencies for adjacent cell sitesare selected to be different so that there is sufficient frequencyseparation between adjacent transmitter frequencies to avoid overlappingtransmissions among adjacent cell sites. In order to reuse the samefrequencies, the cellular telecommunication industry has developed asmall but finite number of transmitter frequencies and a cell siteallocation pattern that ensures that two adjacent cell sites do notoperate on the same frequency. When a ground-based wireless subscriberdevice initiates a call connection, control signals from the local cellsite transmitter cause the frequency agile transponder in theground-based wireless subscriber device to operate at the frequency ofoperation designated for that particular cell site. As the ground-basedwireless subscriber device moves from one cell site to another, the callconnection is handed off to the successive cell sites and the frequencyagile transponder in the ground-based wireless subscriber device adjustsits frequency of operation to correspond to the frequency of operationof the transmitter located in the cell site in which the ground-basedwireless subscriber device is presently operational.

There are numerous technologies that can be used to implement thecellular communication network and these include both digital and analogparadigms, with the digital apparatus representing the more recent ofthe two technologies. Furthermore, the frequency spectrum is allocatedfor different cellular communication systems, with the personalcommunication system (PCS) systems being located in the 1.9 GHz regionof the spectrum while traditional cellular systems are located in the800 MHZ region of the spectrum. The access methods used in cellularcommunication systems include Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) thatuses orthogonal codes to implement communication channels, Time DivisionMultiple Access (TDMA) which uses time division multiplexing of afrequency to implement communication channels and Frequency DivisionMultiple Access (FDMA) which uses separate frequencies to implementcommunication channels, as well as combinations of these technologies.These concepts are well known in the field of cellular communicationsand various ones of these can be used to implement the ubiquitouswireless subscriber device of the present invention. These technologiesare not limitations to the system which is described herein, since anovel system concept is disclosed, not a specific technologicallylimited implementation of an existing system concept.

The traditional CDMA cellular network architecture is designed to carrya wireless call between a wireless subscriber device and a base station,by simultaneously using multiple base stations or antennas to mitigatethe effects of signal fading of various types, including, but notlimited to: Raleigh, rician and log-normal. If one cell or one antennain the CDMA cellular network has a poor signal for a given time frame,another cell or antenna in the CDMA cellular network which had anacceptable signal carries the call. This call management process iscalled soft or softer hand-off, depending on whether the call is carriedbetween two cells or two antennas at a given cell, respectively.

Cellular Communication Network Architecture

FIG. 1 is the block diagram of the architecture of the presentcommunique system for cellular communication networks 100 and oneexample of an existing commercial cellular communication network inwhich it is implemented. In the description of the present communiquesystem for cellular communication networks, the major entities of thecellular communication network providing communique services to thewireless subscriber device 101 are the Base Station Subsystems 131-151that are associated with the Mobile Telephone Switching Office 106. In atypical cellular communications network, there are numerous MobileTelephone Switching Offices 106, but for the sake of simplicity only asingle Mobile Telephone Switching Office is shown.

The typical implementation of an existing Mobile Telephone SwitchingOffice 106 comprises a Mobile Telephone Switching Office Controller 106Cwhich executes call processing associated with the Mobile TelephoneSwitching Office 106. A switching network 106N provides the telephoneconnectivity between Base Station Subsystems 131-151. Base StationSubsystems 131-151 communicate with wireless subscriber device 101 usingRadio Frequency (RF) channels 111 and 112, respectively. RF channels 111and 112 convey both command messages as well as digital data, which mayrepresent voice signals being articulated at the wireless subscriberdevice 101 and the far-end party. With a CDMA system, the wirelesssubscriber device 101 communicates with at least One Base StationSubsystem 131. In FIG. 1, the,wireless subscriber device 101 issimultaneously communicating with two Base Station Subsystems 131, 141,thus constituting a soft handoff. However, a soft handoff is not limitedto a maximum of two base stations. Standard EIA/TIA IS-95-B supports asoft handoff with as many as six base stations. When in a soft handoff,the base stations serving a given call must act in concert so thatcommands issued over RF channels 111 and 112 are consistent with eachother. In order to accomplish this consistency, one of the serving basestation subsystems may operate as the primary base station subsystemwith respect to the other serving base station subsystems. Of course, awireless subscriber device 101 may communicate with only a single basestation subsystem if determined as sufficient by the cellularcommunication network.

Cellular communication networks provide a plurality of concurrentlyactive communications in the same service area, with the number ofconcurrently active communication connections exceeding the number ofavailable radio channels. This is accomplished by reusing the channelsvia the provision of multiple Base Station Subsystems 131-151 in theservice area that is served by a single Mobile Telephone SwitchingOffice 106. The overall service area of a Mobile Telephone SwitchingOffice 106 is divided into a plurality of “cells”, each of whichincludes a Base Station Subsystem 131 and associated radio transmissiontower 102. The radius of the cell is basically the distance from thebase station radio transmission tower 102 to the furthest locus at whichgood reception between the wireless subscriber device 101 and the radiotransmission tower 102 can be effected. The entire service area of aMobile Telephone Switching Office 106 is therefore covered by aplurality of adjacent cells. There is an industry standard cell patternin which sets of channels are reused. Within a particular cell, thesurrounding cells are grouped in a circle around the first cell and thechannels used in these surrounding cells differ from the channels usedin the particular cell and from each of the other surrounding cells.Thus, the signals emanating from the radio transmission tower in theparticular cell do not interfere with the signals emanating from theradio transmission towers located in each of the surrounding cellsbecause they are at different radio frequencies and have differentorthogonal coding. However, in the case of soft handoff, the frequenciesmust be the same for all cells involved in the soft or softer handoffprocess. In addition, the next closest cell using the transmissionfrequency of the particular cell is far enough away from this cell thatthere is a significant disparity in signal power and thereforesufficient signal rejection at the receivers to ensure that there is nosignal interference. The shape of the cell is determined by thesurrounding terrain and is typically not circular, but skewed byirregularities in the terrain, the effect of buildings and vegetationand other signal attenuators present in the cell area. Thus, the cellpattern is simply conceptual in nature and does not reflect the actualphysical extent on the various cells, since the implemented cells arenot hexagonal in configuration and do not have precisely delimitedboundary edges.

The control channels that are available in this system are used to setupthe communication connections between the subscriber stations 101 andthe Base Station Subsystem 131. When a call is initiated, the controlchannel is used to communicate between the wireless subscriber device101 involved in the call and the local serving Base Station Subsystem131. The control messages locate and identify the wireless subscriberdevice 101, determine the dialed number, and identify an availablevoice/data communication channel consisting of a pair of radiofrequencies and orthogonal coding which is selected by the Base StationSubsystem 131 for the communication connection. The radio unit in thewireless subscriber device 101 re-tunes the transmitter-receiverequipment contained therein to use these designated radio frequenciesand orthogonal coding. Once the communication connection is established,the control messages are typically transmitted to adjust transmitterpower and/or to change the transmission channel when required to handoffthis wireless subscriber device 101 to an adjacent cell, when thesubscriber moves from the present cell to one of the adjoining cells.The transmitter power of the wireless subscriber device 101 is regulatedsince the magnitude of the signal received at the Base Station Subsystem131 is a function of the subscriber station transmitter power and thedistance from the Base Station Subsystem 131. Therefore, by scaling thetransmitter power to correspond to the distance from the Base StationSubsystem 131, the received signal magnitude can be maintained within apredetermined range of values to ensure accurate signal receptionwithout interfering with other transmissions in the cell.

The voice communications between wireless subscriber device 101 andother subscriber stations, such as land line based subscriber station109, is effected by routing the communications received from thewireless subscriber device 101 via switching network 106N and trunks tothe Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) 108 where thecommunications are routed to a Local Exchange Carrier 125 that servesland line based subscriber station 109. There are numerous MobileTelephone Switching Offices 106 that are connected to the PublicSwitched Telephone Network (PSTN) 108 to thereby enable subscribers atboth land line based subscriber stations and wireless subscriber devicesto communicate between selected stations thereof. This architecturerepresents the present architecture of the wireless and wirelinecommunication networks. The present communique system for cellularcommunication networks 100 is shown connected to the Public SwitchedTelephone Network 108, the Mobile Telephone Switching Offices 106, aswell as a data communication network such as the Internet 107, althoughthese examples of interconnections are subject to an implementationselected by the purveyor of communique services and some of theseconnections can be eliminated as unnecessary for some implementations asdescribed below.

Format of the Forward CDMA Channel

FIG. 3 illustrates in block diagram form a typical configuration of theBase Station Subsystem 131 to wireless subscriber device 101 forwardCDMA channel used in cellular communication networks. The typical BaseStation Subsystem 131 to wireless subscriber device 101 forward CDMAchannel comprises a predefined bandwidth centered about a selectedcarrier frequency. The bandwidth of the selected channel as well as theselected carrier frequency is a function of the technical implementationof the Base Station Subsystem 131 of the cellular communication networkand is not discussed further herein. The channel is typically dividedinto a plurality of segments: Pilot 301, Synchronization (Synch) 302,Paging 303, Traffic 304.

The Paging 303 and Traffic 304 segments are further divided into aplurality of channels Ch1-Ch7 and Ch1-Ch55, respectively. Each trafficchannel represents a communication space for a selected wirelesssubscriber device 101. The plurality of paging channels Ch1-Ch7 areavailable for the base station subsystem 131 to page a selected wirelesssubscriber device 101 in well known fashion. In order to segregate thesechannels, each channel is assigned a selected one of the 64 Walsh codes,from W=0 to W=63. For example, the Pilot channel is assigned a Walshcode of W=0, while the Synch channel is assigned a Walsh code of W=32.The Paging channels Ch1-Ch7 are assigned Walsh codes of W=1-W=7,respectively. The remaining Walsh codes are assigned to the trafficchannels CH1-CH55 as shown in FIG. 3. Each Traffic channel consists ofdata traffic 311 as well as in band signaling 312 transmitted from thebase station subsystem 131 to the wireless subscriber device 101.

Idle Handoff of Wireless Subscriber Devices

FIG. 2 illustrates in flow diagram form the operation of a typicalcellular communication system in implementing an idle handoff mode ofoperation. An idle handoff occurs,when a wireless subscriber device 101has moved from the coverage area of one Base Station Subsystem 131 intothe coverage area of another Base Station Subsystem 141 during theWireless Station Idle State. As shown in FIG. 2, at step 201, thewireless subscriber device 101 scans for pilot signals for the basestations that serve the coverage area in which the wireless subscriberdevice 101 is operational. If the wireless subscriber device 101 detectsa Pilot channel signal from another base station subsystem 141, that issufficiently stronger than that of the present Base Station Subsystem131, the wireless subscriber device 101 determines that an idle handoffshould occur. Pilot channels are identified by their offsets relative tothe zero offset pilot PN sequence and typically are the Walsh Code 0 foreach channel. Pilot offsets are grouped by the wireless subscriberdevice 101 at step 202 into sets describing their status with regard topilot searching. The following sets of pilot offsets are defined for awireless subscriber device 101 in the Wireless Station Idle State. Eachpilot offset is a member of only one set.

Active Set:

The pilot offset of the Forward CDMA Channel whose Paging channel isbeing monitored.

Neighbor Set:

The offsets of the Pilot channels that are likely candidates for idlehandoff. The members of the Neighbor Set are specified in the NeighborList Message, Extended Neighbor List Message, and the General NeighborList Message.

Remaining Set:

The set of all possible pilot offsets. In the process of FIG. 2, thewireless subscriber device 101 at step 203 selects the 3 strongest pilotsignals for use in establishing/maintaining the cellular communicationconnection. In this process, the RAKE receiver in the wirelesssubscriber device 101 at step 207 continuously looks for the strongestpilot signals to ensure the continuation of the cellular communicationconnection. The wireless subscriber device 101 at step 204 decodes thepilot signals and locks on to the synch channel of selected forward CDMAchannels having the strongest pilot signals.

At step 205, the wireless subscriber device 101 transmits on the Accesschannel of the end user to base station reverse CDMA channels,corresponding to of the selected forward CDMA channels having thestrongest pilot signals, using a random access procedure. Manyparameters of the random access procedure are supplied by the BaseStation Subsystem 131 in the Access Parameters Message. The entireprocess of sending one message and receiving (or failing to receive) anacknowledgment for that message is called an access attempt. One accessattempt consists of one or more access sub-attempts. Each transmissionin the access sub-attempt is called an access probe. Each access probeconsists of an Access channel preamble and an Access channel messagecapsule.

When the wireless subscriber device 101 stops transmitting access probesof an access attempt to one pilot and begins transmitting access probesof an access attempt to another pilot, it is said to perform an accessprobe handoff. The portion of an access attempt which begins when thewireless subscriber device 101 begins transmitting access probes to onepilot, and ends when the wireless subscriber device 101 either performsan access probe handoff or receives an acknowledgment for that messageis called an access sub-attempt. When the access probe handoff issuccessful, at step 205 the wireless subscriber device 101 switches toidle Traffic channels, one per selected forward CDMA channel anddemodulates the signals received therein and at step 206 outputs thedemodulated multi-media output to the user interface of the wirelesssubscriber device 101 for use by the subscriber.

As described herein, the overhead required in point to point cellularcommunications to manage handoffs between cells within the cellularcommunication network is considerable and continuous, since many of thewireless subscriber devices served by the cellular communication networkare mobile in nature. In the present communique system for cellularcommunication networks, the need for this overhead in processing callhandoffs is reduced since the wireless subscriber device is not providedwith a unique communication link, but shares this link with many otherwireless subscriber devices. There are a number of communiqueimplementations that can be overlaid on this standard handoff process.

Within an access sub-attempt, access probes are grouped into accessprobe sequences. The Access channel used for each access probe sequenceis chosen pseudo randomly from among all the Access channels associatedwith the present Paging channel. If there is only one Access channelassociated with the present paging channel, all access probes within anaccess probe sequence are transmitted on the same Access channel. Ifthere is more than one access channel associated with the present PagingChannel, all access probes within an access probe sequence may betransmitted on the different Access channels associated with the presentPaging channel. Each access probe sequence consists of up to 1+NUM_STEPsaccess probes. The first access probe of each access probe sequence istransmitted at a specified power level relative to the nominal open looppower level. Each subsequent access probe is transmitted at a powerlevel that is adjusted by the PWR_STEPs plus the mean input power changeplus the interference correction change from the previous access probe.

The timing of access probes and access probe sequences is expressed interms of Access channel slots. The transmission of an access probebegins at the start of an Access channel slot. There are two types ofmessages sent on the Access channel: a response message (one that is aresponse to a base station message) or a request message (one that issent autonomously by the wireless subscriber device). Differentprocedures are used for sending a response message and for sending arequest message. The timing of the start of each access probe sequenceis determined pseudo randomly. Timing between access probes of an accessprobe sequence is also generated pseudo randomly. After transmittingeach access probe, the wireless subscriber device waits a specifiedperiod, TA=(2+ACC_TMO_(s))×80 ms, from the end of the slot to receive anacknowledgment from the base station. If an acknowledgment is received,the access attempt ends. If no acknowledgment is received and thewireless subscriber device transmits all access probes within an accessprobe sequence on the same Access channel associated with the currentPaging channel, the next access probe is transmitted after an additionalback off delay, RT, from 0 to 1+PROBE_BKOFFS slots. If no acknowledgmentis received and the wireless subscriber device pseudo randomly selectsan Access channel from among all Access channels associated with thecurrent Paging channel, the next access probe is transmitted after anadditional back off delay, RT, from 0 to PROBE_BKOFF_(s) slots. Thewireless subscriber device 101 shall not begin a new access attemptuntil the previous access attempt has ended.

Access Handoff

The wireless subscriber device 101 is permitted to perform an accesshandoff to use the Paging channel with the best pilot strength and anassociated Access channel. The wireless subscriber device 101 ispermitted to perform an access handoff when waiting for a response fromthe Base Station Subsystem 131 or before sending a response to the BaseStation Subsystem 131. An access handoff is permitted after an accessattempt while the wireless subscriber device 101 is in the Page ResponseSubrate or the Wireless Station Origination Attempt Subrate. When thewireless subscriber device 101 declares a loss of the Paging channel,the wireless subscriber device 101 shall perform an access handoff whilewaiting for a response from the Base Station Subsystem 131 in the SystemAccess State if the wireless subscriber device 101 is not performing anaccess attempt and all of the following conditions hold:

The new base station is in the list ACCESS_HO_LIST,

ACCESS_HOs is equal to ‘1’, and

The wireless subscriber device is in the Page Response Subrate or theWireless Station Origination Attempt Subrate.

When the wireless subscriber device 101 declares a loss of the Pagingchannel, the wireless subscriber device 101 shall perform an accesshandoff after receiving a message and before responding to that messagewhile in the System Access State if the wireless subscriber device 101is not performing an access attempt and all of the following conditionshold:

The new base station is in the list ACCESS_HO_LIST,

ACCESS_HOs is equal to ‘1’,

ACCESS_HO_MSG_RSPs is equal to ‘1’, and

The wireless subscriber device is in the Page Response Subrate or theWireless Station Origination Attempt Subrate.

When the wireless subscriber device 101 declares an insufficiency of thePaging channel, the wireless subscriber device 101 may perform an accesshandoff while waiting for a response from the Base Station Subsystem 131in the System Access State if the wireless subscriber device 101 is notperforming an access attempt and all of the following conditions hold:

The new base station is in the list ACCESS_HO_LIST,

ACCESS_HOs is equal to ‘1’, and

The wireless subscriber device is in the Page Response Subrate or theWireless Station Origination. Attempt Subrate.

When the wireless subscriber device 101 declares an insufficiency of thePaging channel, the wireless subscriber device 101 may perform an accesshandoff after receiving a message and before responding to that messagewhile in the System Access State if the wireless subscriber device 101is not performing an access attempt and all of the following conditionshold:

The new base station is in the list ACCESS_HO_LIST,

ACCESS_HOs is equal to ‘1’,

ACCESS_HO_MSG_RSPs is equal to ‘1’, and

The wireless subscriber device is in the Page Response Subrate or theWireless Station Origination Attempt Subrate.

Before the wireless subscriber device 101 transmits an access probe tothe new Base Station Subsystem 141, the wireless subscriber device 101shall update the parameters based on the System Parameters Message, theAccess Parameters Message and the Extended System Parameters Message onthe associated new Paging channel and process the parameters from themessages. The wireless subscriber device 101 shall update the parametersbased on the Neighbor List Message, Extended Neighbor List Message orthe General Neighbor List Message on the associated new Paging channeland process the parameters from the message. If the wireless subscriberdevice 101 receives a Global Service Redirection Message which directsthe wireless subscriber device 101 away from the new Base StationSubsystem 141, the wireless subscriber device 101 shall not access thenew Base Station Subsystem 141. The wireless subscriber device 101 shallprocess these messages only once after each access handoff. IfACCESS_PROBE_HO_(s) is equal to ‘0’ and ACCESS_HO_(s) is equal to ‘1’,the wireless station may monitor other Paging Channels which are inACCESS_HO_LIST for T_(42m) seconds after the wireless subscriber device101 declares a loss of the original Paging channel during an accessattempt.

Access Probe Handoff

The wireless subscriber device 101 is permitted to perform an accessprobe handoff when the wireless subscriber device 101 is in the PageResponse Subrate or the Wireless Station Origination Attempt Subrate.The wireless subscriber device 101 may perform an access probe handoffduring an access attempt to a pilot in ACCESS_HO_LIST when the messagebeing sent is the Origination Message or the Page Response Message ifall of the following conditions hold:

ACCESS_PROBE_HOs is equal to ‘1’,

The wireless subscriber device is in the Page Response Subrate or theWireless Station Origination Attempt Subrate, and

The wireless subscriber device has performed fewer than(MAX_NUM_PROBE_HOs+1) access probe handoffs during the current accessattempt.

The wireless subscriber device 101 may also perform an access probehandoff during an access attempt to a pilot in ACCESS_HO_LIST when themessage being sent is a message other than the Origination Message orthe Page Response Message if all of the preceding conditions hold andACC_PROBE_HO_OTHER_MSGs is equal to ‘1’. The wireless subscriber device101 may also perform an access probe handoff during an access attempt toa pilot not in ACCESS_HO_LIST when the message being sent is theOrigination Message or the Page Response Message if all of the followingconditions hold:

ACC_HO_LIST_UPDs is equal to ‘1’,

ACCESS_PROBE_HOs is equal to ‘1’,

The new pilot is stronger than any pilot in ACCESS_HO_LIST,

The new pilot has the corresponding ACCESS_HO_ALLOWED field in theNGHBR_REC equal to ‘1’,

Inclusion of the new pilot in ACCESS_HO_LIST does not cause the Accesschannel message to exceed the maximum capsule size,

Inclusion of the new pilot in ACCESS_HO_LIST does not cause the numberof members to exceed N_(13m),

The wireless subscriber device is in the Page Response Subrate or theWireless Station Origination Attempt Subrate, and

The wireless subscriber device has performed fewer than(MAX_NUM_PROBE_HOs +1) access probe handoffs during the current accessattempt.

The wireless subscriber device 101 may also perform an access probehandoff during an access attempt to a pilot in ACCESS_HO_LIST when themessage being sent is a message other than the Origination Message orthe Page Response Message if all of the preceding conditions hold andACC_PROBE_HO_OTHER_MSGs is equal to ‘1’. If the above conditions aremet, the wireless subscriber device 101 may perform an access probehandoff when the wireless subscriber device 101 declares a loss of thePaging channel; the wireless subscriber device 101 may also perform anaccess probe handoff after the TA timer expires and the wirelesssubscriber device 101 declares an insufficiency of the Paging channel.

Before the wireless subscriber device 101 transmits an access probe tothe new base station 104, the wireless subscriber device 101 shallupdate the parameters based on the System Parameters Message, the AccessParameters Message and the Extended System Parameters Message on theassociated new Paging channel and process the parameters from themessage. The wireless subscriber device 101 shall update the parametersbased on the Neighbor List Message, Extended Neighbor List Message, orthe General Neighbor List Message on the associated new Paging channeland process the parameters from the message. If the wireless subscriberdevice 101 receives a Global Service Redirection Message which directsthe wireless subscriber device 101 away from the new Base StationSubsystem 141, the wireless subscriber device 101 shall not access theNew Base Station Subsystem 141. The wireless subscriber device 101 shallprocess these messages only once per access sub-attempt during an accessattempt.

If the wireless subscriber device 101 performs an access probe handoff,the wireless subscriber device 101 shall restart the access attemptprobe sequence number on the new pilot, starting with the first probe ofthe first probe sequence of the access sub-attempt. The wirelesssubscriber device 101 shall not reset its access probe handoff countuntil the access attempt ends. The wireless subscriber device 101 shallabort the access attempt if the length of the message to be sent exceedsMAX_CAP_SIZE of the new base station. The wireless subscriber device 101may monitor other Paging channels which are in ACCESS_HO_LIST forT_(42m) seconds.

Philosophy of the Communique System

The terms “cell site” and “cell” are sometimes loosely used in theliterature, and the term “cell site” generally denotes the locus, suchas Base Station Subsystem 131, at which the radio frequency transmitterand receiver apparatus (Base Station Transceiver 133, 143, 144, 153) islocated, while the term “cell” generally denotes the region of spacewhich is served by a particular radio frequency transmitter-receiverpair which is installed in Base Station Transceiver 133 at Base StationSubsystem 131, and includes sectors of a particular cell where the cellcomprises a plurality of sectors. The particular technology used toimplement the communications between wireless subscriber devices and theradio frequency transmitter-receiver pairs as well as the nature of thedata transferred therebetween, be it voice, video, telemetry, computerdata, and the like, are not limitations to the communique system forcellular communication networks 100 which is described herein, since anovel system concept is disclosed, not a specific technologicallylimited implementation of an existing system concept. Therefore, theterm “cellular” as it is used herein denotes a communication systemwhich operates on the basis of dividing space into a plurality ofvolumetric sections or cells, and managing communications betweenwireless subscriber devices located in the cells and the associatedradio frequency transmitter-receiver pairs located at the cell site foreach of these cells. In addition, the term “telecommunications cell” isused in the general sense and includes a traditional cell generated by acell site as well as a sector of a cell, as well as a cell elevationsector, regardless of size and shape. The wireless subscriber device, asnoted above, can be any of a number of full function communicationdevices that include: WAP enabled cellular telephones, personal digitalassistants, Palm Pilots, personal computers, and the like or specialcommunique only communication devices that are specific to communiquereception; or MP3 audio players (essentially a radio receiver orcommunique radio); or an MPEG4 video receiver (communique TV); or othersuch specialized communication device. The subscriber terminal devicescan either be mobile wireless communication devices in the traditionalmobile subscriber paradigm, or the fixed wireless communication devicesin the more recent wireless product offerings.

The communique system for cellular communication networks operates withexisting cellular communication networks, as described above, to provideother than strictly point to point communication services, which arecollectively termed “communique services” herein, to subscribers. TheCommunique can be unidirectional (broadcast) or bidirectional(interactive) in nature and the extent of the Communique can benetwork-wide or narrowcast, where one or more cells and/or cell sectorsare grouped to cover a predetermined geographic area or demographicpopulation or subscriber interest group to transmit information tosubscribers who populate the target audience for the narrowcasttransmissions. For instance, the coverage region can be implemeted inthe radio frequency domain by using frequency assignments, codeassignments or dynamically shaped antenna patterns. Pattern shaping isdone now to manage capacity contraint issues (e.g. a cell size would beshaped/shrunk at busy hour with adjacent cells helping to carry aparticular region's traffic). The communique system for cellularcommunication networks can use pattern shaping to create a narrowcastregion for instance.

The communique system for cellular communication networks createsbroadcast and/or narrowcast regions in a “virtual” manner. With thisconcept, the RF configuration is separable, in that it can be static inits architecture OR it could be configured as described above in adynamic manner. The “virtual” architecture is achieved in the contentdomain—a very powerful and flexible concept. By selectively enabling anddisabling specific content on a cell-by-cell basis, a shaped broadcastor narrowcast can be realized from the end-user's perspective eventhough the RF configuration may have remained static or unchanged. Thisis a powerful narrowcast tool since it is relatively simple todynamically change the specific content being transmitted at a givencell. The combinatorial effect is spatial and temporal in its extenteven though the RF archtitecture may have been unchanged. The methodsavailable to achieve this effect are similar to the zip code advertisingsytems used in cable TV transmissions wherein regional servers select,parse and reassemble content for a particular geographic region. Thecontent management can also be done on a centralized basis.

The basic functionality of the communique system for cellularcommunication networks 100 comprises an information distributionmanagement functionality that concurrently propagates information to aplurality of wireless subscriber devices, using push, pull andcombinations of push/pull data propagation modes. The need forinformation dissemination is identified: in response to external events,in response to predetermined temporal/spatial stimuli; as a function ofsubscriber inquiries/requests; and the like. The communique system forcellular communication networks 100, in response to an identifiedinformation dissemination event, identifies a plurality of cells in thecellular communication network as well as available communicationchannels in each of these cells to carry the information that is to betransmitted to a plurality of wireless subscriber devices extant in thelocales served by the selected cells. The communication channels can bededicated to communique services or can be selected from the pool ofavailable communication channels. The subscribers access the Communiquesby selecting the communication channel on their wireless subscriberdevice that carries the Communique. The subscriber can be alerted to thepresence of the Communique in many ways or can activate their wirelesssubscriber device to retrieve the Communique absent any alert beingtransmitted to the wireless subscriber device. The Communique retrievedby the subscriber is not subscriber-unique, in that the Communique istransmitted to many subscribers, with a plurality of subscribersconcurrently accessing the Communique being a typical mode of operation.In addition, the bandwidth required for communique services can bevariable, with unused channels of the existing cellular communicationnetwork being allocated on an as needed basis to communique services.Furthermore, the routine point to point cellular communication trafficcan be load balanced with the communique services, with routine cellulartraffic being preferentially served by cells that have unused capacityto thereby free up channels in other cells for communique services.

In addition, the communique system for cellular communication networks100 identifies the appropriate source of information available from aprogram source which is to be used to constitute the communique service.The information can be a predetermined continuous feed, or can becomprised of a plurality of segments which can be interspersed withadvertisements, other information segments and the like.

Communique Services in Cellular Communication Networks

As can be seen from the above description, the wireless subscriberdevice 101 listens for the strongest pilot signal in one of theavailable communication channels and uses this pilot signal to derive atime/frequency reference. The wireless subscriber device 101 thendemodulates the synch signal for this communication channel to preciselyalign the clock of the wireless subscriber device 101 with thatcontained in the Base Station Subsystem 131. For a broadcast mode ofoperation, the wireless subscriber device 101 must be given informationthat identifies which PN codes are broadcast/narrowcast signals for thiscommunication channel. This can be accomplished by transmittingdirectory information to the wireless subscriber device 101 in the pilotor synch signals or by using a predefined PN code for selected broadcastsignals.

Since the cellular communication network continuously transmits theCommunique signals from various cell sites, there is no statisticalreduction of self interference. Therefore, proper selection offrequencies for transmission and PN codes are necessary to reduceinterference. Each PN code space can contain either a singletransmission or can be used in a multiplex mode where multiple signalsare transmitted. In the latter mode, time slotted baseband data isstreamed on a single CDMA waveform by the creation of multiplesubchannels in each frame of the transmission. In this manner, lowerdata rate signals can share a single transmission.

The Mobile Telephone Switching Office 106, in conjunction with the VLRand HLR, helps to manage the registration process which includessubscriber authorization. The Visitor Location Register 161 and the HomeLocation Register 162 are essentially sophisticated databases that arehooked to the Mobile Telephone Switching Office 106. The VLR and HLR aresometimes the same device with logical functional partitions althoughVLRs can stand alone and be distributed in their deployment while HLRsare typically more centralized. The Communique Location Register (CLR)163, is the apparatus in the communique system for cellularcommunication networks 100 where all of the systems information forsubscribers' authorization and service plans reside. This hassubstantial merit in terms of practical implementation since it can be awholly separate device that connects to the Mobile Telephone SwitchingOffice 106 or as an integral part of the communique system for cellularcommunication networks 100. The Communique Location Register 163 isattached to the Mobile Telephone Switching Office 106 in a mannersimilar to the HLR/VLR.

In order to describe the various services that are available from thecommunique system for cellular communication networks 100, the termsused to describe the processes operational in the recognition of asubscriber and provision of service to a subscriber must be defined.“Acquisition” is the process where the wireless subscriber device scansfor pilots, locks onto synch channels and has all system based knowledgenecessary to know where and how to receive Communiques. “Registration”is the process that entails the interchange of information between thewireless subscriber device and the cellular communication networkwherein the cellular communication network becomes aware of and knowswhich subscribers are receiving Communiques and where they are receivingthem. “Authorization” is the process where the communique system forcellular communication networks 100 grants end-user access to broadcastor narrowcast content to one or many subscribers in a general orspecific location. Thus, a “free” communique service has the ACQUISITIONprocess but does not have REGISTRATION or AUTHORIZATION processes.“Subscription” communique services have all three processes. “Pre-pay”communique services have a modified ACQUISITION process but do notinclude REGISTRATION or AUTHORIZATION processes. Therefore, the term“autonomous” can be used to describe the “free” broadcast architecture,since the cellular communication network does not know who is listeningor where they are listening. This is the equivalent of today's broadcastradio and TV with the exception that the content can be specialized into“free” narrowcasts that have a limited spatial extent which can bedynamically managed. The wireless subscriber device used for such acommunique service can be a one-way receive only (ultra-low cost)wireless subscriber device. For a communique service that includes freebroadcasts and subscription services, the wireless subscriber device isnot content interactive, meaning communique services such asrequest-reply are not available. The wireless subscriber device istwo-way in terms of its communication capability with the network forregistration and authorization purposes. A Pre-pay Subscriptioncommunique service is conceptually similar to the digital TV recordersthat have a one-time-only pre-pay subscription fee. This concept uses amodified forward paging channel to provide initialization informationfor traffic channels and then uses in-band signaling on the forwardtraffic channel to convey systems information.

Unidirectional Transmission Without Subscriber Registration

There are numerous possible architectures that can be used to transmitinformation to the wireless subscriber devices with the architectureselected having an impact on the types of transmissions.

FIG. 4 illustrates in block diagram form a typical assignment of cellsin a cellular communication network for a unidirectional transmissionwithout subscriber registration mode of operation of the presentcommunique system for cellular communication networks 100, where aplurality of cells are transmitting communique signals, with each cellusing the same frequency and optionally the same Walsh (PN) code for aselected Communique. There is a K=3 cell repeat pattern, althoughalternatively, the cells can be subdivided into three sectors for thesame effect. In this manner, the wireless, subscriber device 101 doesnot have to search for the desired Communique, since the location isuniform throughout the cellular communication network. The wirelesssubscriber device 101 is always in soft handoff mode and in the exampleof FIG. 4, the PN code varies by cell according to the K=3 repeatpattern, so the wireless subscriber device 101 maintains a soft handoffmode with the three PN codes, regardless of the location of the wirelesssubscriber device 101 in the cellular communication network. Existingwireless subscriber devices are equipped with three receivers in therake receiver system which enables operation in this mode.

Alternatively, adjacent cells (or cell sectors) can transmit theCommunique signals on different frequencies, but this requiresadditional complexity in the wireless subscriber device, since thehandoff must occur with both frequency and PN code making it a hardhandoff. In addition, the lack of uniformity in the transmissionfrequency requires the wireless subscriber device to receive informationfrom the base station to identify the location of the desired Communiquein order to enable the wireless subscriber device to lock on to theappropriate combination of frequency and PN code for each cell. One wayof avoiding the complexity is illustrated in FIG. 6 where there is agrouping of K=3 for the cells and the Walsh code assignment is static,using a specific Walsh code for each of the K=3 cells, such as Trafficchannel 8 (Walsh code W=8) for the cell K=1 and Traffic channel Ch9(Walsh code W=9) for the cell K=2 and Traffic channel Ch10 (Walsh codeW=10) for cell K=3. Therefore, the subscriber does not need additionalinformation from the cellular communication network to receive thebroadcast information, since the wireless subscriber device 101 has 3RAKE receivers, which can each be locked on to one of the three Walshcodes W=8-W=10 used in the K=3 repeat scenario. The wireless subscriberdevice 101 can always be in a soft handoff mode to ensure that continualreception of the transmission takes place as the wireless subscriberdevice 101 receives signals from the three predetermined Trafficchannels.

Non-Interactive Bidirectional Transmission With Subscriber Registration

FIG. 7 illustrates in block diagram form a typical assignment of cellsin a cellular communication network for a non-interactive bidirectionaltransmission with subscriber registration mode of operation of thepresent communique system for cellular communication networks 100, wherea plurality of cells are transmitting Communique signals, with each cellusing any frequency and any Walsh (PN) code for a selected Communique.This mode of operation enables the cellular communication system toselect any repeat pattern of cells, any assignment of Walsh codes for atransmission to thereby enable communique services. The wirelesssubscriber device 101 communicates with the Base Station Subsystem 131for channel assignment spoofed registration purposes to receive freecommunique services, but does not enter an interactive mode onceregistration is accomplished. Thus, the wireless subscriber device 101does not require a unique MIN for this free communique services mode ofoperation, since billing or authorization are not required.

However, for subscription services, as shown in FIG. 7, at step 701, thewireless subscriber device 101 scans for pilot signals from the BaseStation Subsystems that serve the coverage area in which the wirelesssubscriber device 101 is operational. If the wireless subscriber device101 detects a Pilot Channel signal from another Base Station Subsystem141, that is sufficiently stronger than that of the present Base StationSubsystem 131, the wireless subscriber device 101 determines that anidle handoff should occur. Pilot Channels are identified by theiroffsets relative to the zero offset pilot PN sequence and typically arethe Walsh Code 0 for each channel. Pilot offsets are grouped by thewireless subscriber device 101 at step 702 into sets describing theirstatus with regard to pilot searching. The wireless subscriber device101 at step 703 selects the 3 strongest pilot signals for use inestablishing/maintaining the cellular communication connection. In thisprocess, the RAKE receiver in the wireless subscriber device 101 at step710 continuously looks for the strongest pilot signals to ensure thecontinuation of the cellular communication connection. The wirelesssubscriber device 101 at step 704 decodes the pilot signals and locks onto the synch channel of the 3 selected forward CDMA channels having thestrongest pilot signals.

At step 705, the wireless subscriber device 101 registers with the BaseStation Subsystem 131 using their unique EIN and SSD, but a common MINthat is used for communique purposes to spoof the base station subsystem131 into recognizing the wireless subscriber device 101 withoutrequiring a unique identity for the wireless subscriber device 101. Inaddition, the fraud prevention system (software) in the Mobile TelephoneSwitching Office 106 is disabled for Communiques since the fraud systemrejects multiple simultaneous MINs at different geographic locations.This feature is designed to prevent cloning fraud (more of an artifactfor analog versus digital) although multi-MIN fraud detection is used indigital systems as well. The Base Station Subsystem 131 verifies theauthorization of this wireless subscriber device 101 to receive therequested service, identifies the inbound call to the wirelesssubscriber device 101 (shared by potentially many wireless subscriberdevices) at step 706 via the Paging channel used by the wirelesssubscriber device 101 to request this service and, in response tocontrol signals received by the wireless subscriber device 101 from theBase Station Subsystem 131, the wireless subscriber device 101 at step707 changes to the identified traffic channel that carries the selectedCommunique. The wireless subscriber device 101 at step 709 remains in asoft handoff mode to ensure uninterrupted reception of the Communiqueand also at step 708 outputs the received multi-media data to the user.

In this scenario, the issue of “push/pull” transmissions was notmentioned. The subscriber at wireless subscriber device 101 can receive“push” data transmissions from a source which are directed to allsubscribers of this service by the base station flood paging the MINassociated with this Communique. Thus, the wireless subscriber device101 would potentially have multiple MINs, with one for point to pointtraditional cellular communications and one for each of the communiqueservices to which the subscriber enrolls. Thus, when the wirelesssubscriber device 101 is active in the service area, the flood page ofone of the subscriber's MINs on the paging channel alerts the subscriberof the presence of a Communique transmission. The subscriber canactivate wireless subscriber device 101 to receive this transmission orcan reject the transmission by operating appropriate buttons on thewireless subscriber device 101. The reverse path on this communiquechannel is disabled, since there are many subscribers simultaneouslyregistering for the Communique. The Mobile Telephone Switching Office106, Base Station Controller (BSC) 132, 142, 152 and Base StationTransceiver (BST) 133, 143, 144, 153 need appropriate software andcontrol revisions to not alarm or error when no reverse pathtransmission on the traffic channel is received from the communiquedevice (mobile or fixed). For the provision of subscription or tollservices via the non-interactive bidirectional transmission withsubscriber registration mode of operation of the present communiquesystem for cellular communication networks 100, a plurality of cellstransmit Communique signals, with each cell using any frequency and anyWalsh (PN) code for a selected Communique. This mode of operationenables the cellular communication system to select any repeat patternof cells, any assignment of Walsh codes for a transmission to therebyenable not only free communique services but also subscription services.The wireless subscriber device 101 communicates with the base station102 for registration purposes, but does not enter an interactive modeonce registration is accomplished. Thus, the wireless subscriber device101 does not require a unique MIN for this mode of operation, since thesubscription billing and authorization can be implemented using the ESNand/or SSD of the wireless subscriber device 101.

The difference with this process compared to that of FIG. 7 is that theregistration process of step 705 consists of the wireless subscriberdevice 101 transmitting the spoofing MIN as well as the SSD and/or ESNto the Base Station Subsystem 131 in a brief data exchange on thereverse CDMA paging channel to log the subscriber in to the selectedsubscription or toll services. The forward page to the wirelesssubscriber device 101 can include the Traffic channel identification ofthe subscribed services and the wireless subscriber device 101 respondson the reverse CDMA channel with the subscriber registrationinformation. Much of the communications to effect soft handoff andregistration can be carried in-band on the reverse CDMA channel.

Content Delivery

The content of the Communiques can vary widely and include but are notlimited to: free information, subscription based information, toll basedinformation, and the like, as noted above. The content can be locallygenerated or remotely generated, with the propagation of the informationto the various cell sites being implemented in a number of ways. FIGS.1A &1B illustrate in block diagram form the overall architecture of atypical content delivery network for the present communique system forcellular communication networks 100. In particular, there is a ProgramManager 113 that functions to receive the program source informationfrom multiple sources and migrate information to selected cell sites fortransmission to the subscribers served by these cell sites. TheSpatial-Temporal Content Manager 114 defines the geographic area ordemographic population or subscriber interest group that are the metricsused to transmit information to subscribers who populate the targetaudience for narrowcast transmissions. The Spatial-Temporal ContentManager 114 also can include the selection of frequencies and PN codesthat are used by each cell site to transmit the Communiques tosubscribers. The basic content delivery network is independent of theexisting radio frequency cellular communication network, but iscooperatively operative with the cellular communication network. Thus,it is expected that part of the functionality described herein for thecontent delivery network can be part of or integrated with the cellularcommunication network, as a matter of expediency. The degree to whichthe content delivery network is incorporated into the cellularcommunication network or even into the communique system for cellularcommunication networks 100 varies and does not diminish theapplicability of the concepts embodied in the communique system forcellular communication networks 100.

As shown in block diagram form in FIGS. 1A & 1B, the sources of data forthe communique system for cellular communication networks 100 can bevaried, and a few typical content sources are shown here to illustratethe concepts of the communique system for cellular communicationnetworks 100. In particular, the communique system for cellularcommunication networks 100 is connected to a plurality of contentsources. The sources can be a remotely located program source forproviding for example network news, such as a national network station122 which is connected via a satellite uplink 123 and satellite 124 to asatellite downlink 126 and forwarded to satellite interface 117 that ispart of the communique system for cellular communication networks 100 orcan use the Public Switched Telephone Network and trunk interface 116B.Alternatively, the program source can be a local program source 120 forlocal news and information, that is connected via a data communicationmedium, such as the Internet 107, to an Internet server interface 115 ofthe communique system for cellular communication networks 100. Inaddition, a program source, such as local program source 121 isconnected via the Public Switched Telephone Network 108 to a trunkinterface 116A of the communique system for cellular communicationnetworks 100. In addition, a local terminal device 127 can be connectedvia interface 110 to the communique system for cellular communicationnetworks 100 for inputting information. The various program sourcesprovide information of various types, including but not limited to:news, advertisements, traffic, weather, travel information, and thelike.

The communique system for cellular communication networks 100 alsoincludes a local mass storage memory 119 for storing controlinstructions for use by processor 118 as well as program materialreceived from the various program sources identified above. Thecommunique system for cellular communication networks 100 is controlledby a processor complex which includes Spatial-Temporal Content Manager114 to manage the definition of the cells to which a particularCommunique is transmitted. Furthermore, communique system for cellularcommunication networks 100 includes Program Manager 113 to integrateinformation received from the various program sources into Communiquesthat are transmitted over selected Traffic channels of the forward CDMAchannel within one or more cells as identified by the Spatial-TemporalContent Manager 114. The Communiques generated by the Program Manager113 are transmitted to the various Base Station Subsystems 131-151identified by the Spatial-Temporal Content Manager 114 either directlyor via the associated Mobile Telephone Switching Office 106. The ProgramManager 113 functions to assemble program streams as described below andtransmits the program streams containing the Communiques via a selectedcommunication medium, such as the Public Switched Telephone Network 108,using network interface 116A, or some other communication medium, suchas an IP network.

Content Domain Narrowcast

An alternative to the use of centralized, predetermined Communiques thatare formatted at the communique system for cellular communicationnetworks 100 and transmitted via the Base Station Subsystems 132, 142,152 to the wireless subscriber devices, the delivery of information canbe effected by using the content domain as a distribution format. Thecontent domain enables the communique system for cellular communicationnetworks 100 to achieve a dynamic, changeable broadcast/narrowcastwithout modifying or reconfiguring the RF network domain. In particular,a broadband program stream containing all information for all cells canbe created by the Spatial-Temporal Content Manager 114. Thisinformation, such as that described below with respect to FIG. 8, isdelivered to the Mobile Telephone Switching Office 106 for distributionto all relevant Base Station Subsystems 132, 142, 152. The Base StationSubsystems 132, 142, 152 can either parse the information contained inthe frame into a plurality of Communiques for transmission in theircells, such as the plurality of cells included in coverage areas A-Cshown on FIG. 12. Alternatively, the information can be passed directlyto the wireless subscriber devices for parsing therein. However, it isexpected that the bandwidth limitations in the communication link fromthe Base Station Subsystems 132, 142, 152 to the wireless subscriberdevices render the former parsing scheme preferable to parsing at thewireless subscriber device. Yet another alternative is the hierarchicalparsing of the information, where the Base Station Subsystems 132, 142,152 parse the received information frame into a plurality of subframesof similar format and reduced content for transmission to the wirelesssubscriber devices for further parsing of the subframes into theindividual Communiques. The process utilizes the available bandwidth toprovide the wireless subscriber devices with the information necessaryto produce a number of Communiques, thereby eliminating the need for theBase Station Subsystems 132, 142, 152 to communicate with the wirelesssubscriber devices to switch channels to access other Communiques. Thisdistributed switching and hierarchical information delivery architecturethereby reduces the Paging channel traffic for the Base StationSubsystems 132, 142, 152.

The Spatial-Temporal Content Manager 114 controls the actual informationthat is transmitted from each cell site by sending program streamparsing control signals to routers contained in the Base StationControllers 132, 142, 152 at each cell site which then, on a distributedbasis, re-assemble the broadband program stream containing allinformation for all cells into a data stream that is only relevant forthat particular cell. By grouping cells as shown on FIG. 12 into“content similar blocks” or more specifically coverage areas A-C, theSpatial-Temporal Content Manager 114 has commanded the routers at thecell sites to parse the broadband program stream identically for thegrouped cells (as predefined by the systems programming or a contentprogramming operator), the effect of a narrowcast can be achievedwithout modifying the RF network architecture. From the subscriber'sperspective, he is only receiving narrowcast information when in thegrouped cells' transmission range And, as the subscriber moves from oneregion to another, the broadcast/narrowcast Communique received may bedifferent depending on the spatial programming of the Spatial-TemporalContent Manager 114. Also, over time, a given narrowcast region maychange in its physical shape or disappear altogether.

The operation of this Spatial-Temporal Content Manager 114 isillustrated in flow diagram form in FIG. 11 where at step 1101 each cellin the cellular communication network the is served by the communiquesystem for cellular communication networks 100 is assigned a uniqueaddress, using a selected protocol, such as TCP/IP. At step 1102, thecells are grouped into collections comprising coverage areas. Theprogram content in the form of Communiques are selected at step 1103 andassigned to destinations, using the cell addresses assigned at step1101. At step 1104, the Communique schedule is defined in terms of timeof transmission, duration of transmission, duration of narrowcastregion, temporal and/or spatial characteristics of narrowcast region,and the like. Finally, at step 1105, the identified Communiques aretransmitted to the selected cells using the assigned cell addresses. Thetransmission can occur on a real time basis where the Communiques areprovided to the cells at the time they are to be broadcast, or theCommuniques can be distributed in advance of transmission and stored forfuture transmission. The process of FIG. 11 then returns to either step1101 where address information is updated as needed or step 1102 wherethe cell groupings are modified and the process cycles through theabove-noted steps as required.

One disadvantage of this particular distributed re-assembly approach iswith a CDMA architecture designed to operate in soft or softer handoff(this limitation is not present in an analog or TDMA architecture sincethey do not operate in soft handoff). Since the data streams must beidentical for the wireless subscriber device to operate in soft handoff,as a subscriber transitions form the boundary of one narrowcast regionto another, the number of cell sites available to be in soft handoff isvarying and could be zero. One method for solving this limitedshortcoming is to broadcast the broadband content stream from all sitesall the time and put the router function within the wireless subscriberdevice itself. Commands on how to re-assemble the content is based on ansubscriber's physical location and the signaling is done on an in-bandbasis (i.e. the data parsing commands are contained within the trafficchannel in a TDM fashion). This reduces the effective availablebandwidth for a narrowcast since much of the broadband content is notfor a given subscriber and is “thrown” away by a given subscriber. Italso places higher computing power at the wireless subscriber device inorder to parse the data. Again, if soft handoff isn't required forreliable CDMA operation, the aforementioned limitation isn't a concernand parsing can be done at the cell site. And, in either parsing scheme,distributed at the cell site or distributed at the wireless subscriberdevice, if the content is overlaid on an analog or TDMA network, thesoft handoff limitation is not an issue.

Management of Spatial-Temporal Control of Distributed Content

Conceptually, the programming of the broadcast/narrowcast regions formanagement by the Program Manager 113 is done initially by contentoperators (people) who pre-program the system for content distribution.As a general principle, the content can be classified into groups suchas:

Diurnal Narrrowcasts (e.g. AM/PM traffic reports along highways) SpecialNarrowcasts (e.g. football game, art-in-the-park) Campuses (e.g.schools, work complexes) General (e.g. news weather sports) Other

Much of the programming is repetitive and only needs to done once i.e. adiurnal narrowcast. One-time only events can be programmed in advance,and say for a football game, can retain all of the programming featuressuch as it's spatial coverage extent, and only need to be recalled andgiven a new narrowcast execution time window. From a user interfaceperspective, imagine a GUI that displays all of the cells available fora broadcast/narrowcast wherein an operator can select given cells toform a narrowcast region. This region is then saved as a narrowcastgroup. Next, the operator goes to another GUI screen that contains allavailable broadcast information and selects which content files areappropriate for the narrowcast group just previously designed. Last, theoperator defines the time window for the narrowcast. By repeating thisprocess and building a database of spatial, temporal and contentinformation, all requisite knowledge is programmed into the system for a24 hour 7 day operation in the Spatial-Temporal Content Manager.

The database, at a minimum, has the following fields:

Start Time

Stop Time

Narrowcast Cell Grouping

Broadcast Cell Grouping

Narrowcast Content Stream

Broadcast Content Stream

Other

Format of the Forward CDMA Channel for Communique Architectures

FIG. 5 illustrates in block diagram form a typical configuration of theBase Station Subsystem 131 to wireless subscriber device 101 forwardCDMA channel used for Communique transmissions in cellular communicationnetworks. As noted above, the typical Base Station Subsystem 131 towireless subscriber device 101 forward CDMA channel comprises apredefined bandwidth centered about a selected carrier frequency. Thebandwidth of the selected channel as well as the selected carrierfrequency is a function of the technical implementation of the basestation of the cellular network and is not discussed further herein. Thecommunication space for Communique transmissions is typically dividedinto a plurality of segments: Pilot 501, Synchronization (Synch) 502,Traffic 503. The Traffic 503 segment is further divided into a pluralityof channels Ch1-Ch62. Each traffic channel represents a communicationspace for a selected wireless subscriber device 101. The plurality oftraffic channels CH1-CH62 as shown in FIG. 5 are assigned the remainingWalsh codes. Each Traffic channel consists of data traffic as well as inband signaling transmitted from the Base Station Subsystem 131 to thewireless subscriber device 101, as noted above.

Typical Content Transmission Format

FIG. 8 illustrates in block diagram form a typical signaling protocolfor use in the present communique system for cellular communicationnetworks 100. A frame, 800 can be used to transmit both content as wellas control information and a broadcast guide. The frame 800 is shown inone typical form, although the particulars of the frame 800 can vary asa function of the use of this element. In particular as noted above, abroadband program stream containing all information for all cells can becreated by the Spatial-Temporal Content Manager 114. This information isdelivered to the Mobile Telephone Switching Office 106 via acommunication medium, such as the Public Switched Telephone Network 108,for distribution to all relevant Base Station Subsystems 132, 142, 152.The Base Station Subsystems 132, 142, 152 can either parse theinformation contained in the frame into a plurality of Communiques fortransmission in their cells, such as the plurality of cells included incoverage areas A-C shown on FIG. 12. Alternatively, the information canbe passed directly to the wireless subscriber devices for parsingtherein. Yet another alternative is the hierarchical parsing of theinformation, where the Base Station Subsystems 132, 142, 152 parse thereceived information frame into a plurality of subframes of similarformat and reduced content for transmission to the wireless subscriberdevices for further parsing of the subframes into the individualCommuniques.

The frame 800 has a plurality of constituent parts, including a Header801, Administration 802, Data 803 and Trailer 804. The Header 801 andTrailer 804 are used to identify the beginning and end of the Frame 800and can include error check bits to ensure proper transmission of thedata. The Administration 802 is used to convey various controlinformation to the Base Station Subsystem and to the wireless subscriberdevice. The Administration 802 can include a Radio FrequencyConfiguration segment 811 which defines the Traffic channel on which theframe is to be broadcast. The remaining segments of the Administration802 consist of a “Program Guide” 812 which includes a schedule segment821 to define the time at which the frame is to be transmitted and theinformation parsing data, content definition segment 822 the defines thecontent of the data section 803 of the frame 800 (and optionally theinformation parsing data), Authorization segment 823 which defines thetype of service associated with the content of the data section 803 ofthe frame 800. Advertisements 824 can also be included in the ProgramGuide 812, along with optional special services 825, such as trafficreports 841, public service announcements 842 and the like 843. Othersegments 826 can optionally be included. In the content segment 822, thecontent definitions describe the information that is available, and aplurality of such elements are shown to illustrate this concept,including but not limited to: music 831, 832, sports 833 and otherprograms 834.

It is evident that this example of a format is simply an illustrationand it is expected that numerous variations can be implemented that fallwithin the scope of the concept taught herein. In particular, in thecase of hierarchical parsing, the frame that is transmitted to thewireless subscriber device would be a reduced content version of frame800, since the content would be reduced to match the bandwidthcapabilities of the communication link from the Base Station Subsystems132, 142, 152 to the wireless subscriber devices.

Examples of Narrowcast Dynamic Coverage Areas

FIGS. 9-10 illustrate typical dynamic coverage areas for various typesof Communique transmissions. As an example of the capabilities of thecommunique system for cellular communication networks 100, FIGS. 9 and10 illustrate a typical operating environment for this system underdynamically changing conditions. For example, there can be anentertainment complex or sports stadium 912 located proximate two majorarterial roads, such as North-South oriented highway 910 and East-Westoriented highway 911. There are typically a plurality of cells thatprovide cellular communication services in the area encompassed by theelements shown in FIG. 9. For example, cells 901-904 provide cellularcommunication services for subscribers who are traveling on North-Southoriented highway 910 while cells 905-908 provide cellular communicationservices for subscribers who are traveling on East-West oriented highway911. A cell 909 provides cellular communication services for subscriberswho are located at or around entertainment complex 912 and when theentertainment complex 912 is not in use, the cellular communicationtraffic in cell 909 is minimal. The other cells also are subject tovarying traffic and, for example, during a morning rush hour traffic thecells 901-904 can be collected into a narrowcast coverage area 921 whilethe cells 905-908 can be collected into a narrowcast coverage area 922.Thus, subscribers traveling on North-South oriented highway 910 canreceive traffic status information via narrowcast coverage area 921 andsubscribers traveling on East-West oriented highway 911 can receivetraffic status information via narrowcast coverage area 922. Later inthe day, when people are leaving the entertainment complex 912 andentering both the North-South oriented highway 910 and East-Westoriented highway 911, then the communique system for cellularcommunication networks 100 can reconfigure the narrowcast coverage areasto encompass cells 903, 907-909 into a narrowcast coverage area 923 toprovide traffic status information relating to the outflow of trafficfrom the entertainment complex 912. As the traffic propagates outwardfrom the entertainment complex 912, the communique system for cellularcommunication networks 100 can reconfigure the narrowcast coverage areasto also encompass cells 902, 904, 906. The communique system forcellular communication networks 100 can dynamically adapt the extent ofnarrowcast coverage area 923 in response to the dispersion of thetraffic and, for example, once the entertainment complex 912 is emptied,cell 909 can be dropped from the extent of narrowcast coverage area 923.

The dynamic adaptation of the narrowcast coverage areas and theselection of information transmitted to subscribers located in thesenarrowcast coverage areas is accomplished by the communique system forcellular communication networks 100, operating in cooperation with theMobile Telephone Switching Office 106. The Program Manager 113 and theSpatial-Temporal Communique Manager 114 operate to determine: thepresence of subscribers in a particular cell, the presence of externalevents, the movement of the subscribers from cell to cell, the availableprograms that are to be transmitted to the subscribers, and then processthis information to create the Communiques and the narrowcast coverageareas. This is accomplished in part by the communication between thecommunique system for cellular communication networks 100, operating incooperation with the Mobile Telephone Switching Office 106 in which theabove-noted information is exchanged. In addition, the communique systemfor cellular communication networks 100 maintains data in memory 119that defines the call coverage area of the cells so that the externalevents can be mapped to locales and their associated serving cells.

Program Stream Management

FIG. 13 illustrates a typical stream for a plurality of communicationchannels and FIG. 14 illustrates in tabular form a typical definition ofa plurality of narrowcasts applicable to the program streams of FIG. 13as applied to the typical dynamic coverage areas of FIGS. 9 & 10.Communiques are formed by the Program Manager, 113, and the SpatialTemporal Communique Manager 114, and delivered to the cellular systemvia the Public Switched Telephone Network 108, which is comprised of agrouping of various architectures (circuit, packet switched (e.g.TCP/IP), ATM, frame relay, satellite and so on) to convey theinformation from the Communique System 100, to the Mobile TelephoneSwitching Office 106, to Base Station Subsystem 131, 141, 151 andultimately to Base Station Transceiver 133, 143, 144, 153 fortransmission as a broadcast/narrowcast Communique to the variouswireless subscriber devices. The communiques can be labeled in anymanner appropriate for composite system operation, and for this example,the communiques are given alpha designators (A, B, C and so on). A givenCommunique may have spatial relevance and could be delivery targeted bythe Spatial Temporal Communique Manager 114, to a specific region asdescribed in FIGS. 9 & 10.

As shown in FIG. 13, the example Communique A comprises programming fromsources:

National Source 122, content residing at key media nodes (in acentralized manner);

Regional Source 120, content residing at a plurality of media nodesattached to the Internet (in a centralized/decentralized manner);

Local Source 121, content residing at a plurality of media nodesconnected via the Local Exchange Carrier (in a decentralized manner);

Local Source 127, content residing at end-user nodes (in a decentralizedmanner).

The contents from Regional Source 120 is diverse in its substance andembodies the plethora of media available on the Internet (data, stockquotes, music, video, email, special interest, sports, news and so on).The content from National Source 122 comprises more general informationthat is applicable to many communiques such as news, weather and sports.The content from Local Source 127 is information gathered and conveyedby the end-user in an active or passive mode. An example of Activeinformation is identifying that a particular lane on a particularhighway is blocked. Passive information may be reporting of outside airtemperature.

To generate Communique A as shown in FIG. 13, the Program Manager 113,collects and collates all available content from sources 120, 122 and127 from the universe of All Content Sources and forms/creates/parses120, 122 and 127 to the desired, predetermined information streamthereby creating Communique A. In this example, it is desired to deliverCommunique A to narrowcast region 910. This is the responsibility of theSpatial Temporal Communique Manager 114.

Communique A contains the following content in this example:

From Regional Source 120:

stock quotes (free to the end-user)

music (channelized) (free/subscription to the end-user)

composite traffic flow map (subscription to the end-user)

other

From National Source 122:

news (free to the end user)

weather (free to the end user)

sports (free to the end user)

other

From Local Source 127:

end-user traffic data (free to the network)

end-user temperature data (free to the network)

other Each individual content stream can also contain advertising(typical for a free service). Typical subscription services would notcontain advertising.

The Spatial Temporal Content Manager (STCM) 114, receives allCommuniques from the Program Manager 113, and assigns the communiquesfor a given period of time to given cells to form narrowcast regions inthe time domain. As described in FIG. 14, Communique A, which is thedata payload for 803 delivered to narrowcast region 910, is but one ofmany Communique—Narrowcast—Time pairings that occurs in the SpatialTemporal Communique Manager 114. In addition to Communique A, FIG. 14describes:

Communique B is a diurnal narrowcast covering region 922.

Communique C is a special event narrowcast in region 909 forentertainment complex 912.

In this example, Communiques A & B are repeated daily. Observe thatcells 903, 906, 902, 907 are transmitting both Communiques A & B. Forthese overlapping narrowcast regions, data payload 803 contains bothCommuniques A & B.

At a time different than given for FIG. 9, FIG. 10 describes newnarrowcast regions formed by the Spatial Temporal Communique Manager114. These narrowcast regions are served with information contained incommuniques M & N which is the payload 803 for narrowcast regions 923and 909, respectively.

The Spatial Temporal Communique Manager 114, through repetitiveprogramming, ensures that all cells, whether stand-alone or grouped intoa narrowcast region, have content available 24 hours per day 7 days perweek.

The programming described herein is deterministic meaning the contentcontained within a Communique, where a Communique is transmitted and howlong a communique is transmitted is pre-programmed by the networkoperator. Another embodiment concerns dynamic active feedback fromend-users within a given narrowcast region to “inform” the SpatialTemporal Communique Manager 114, whether or not they are within thenarrowcast region. For instance, let's say that the Spatial TemporalCommunique Manager 114, learns that all end-users have left theentertainment complex located in region 909 delivering Communique Cbecause the baseball game ended earlier than scheduled. The SpatialTemporal Communique Manager 114, can be embodied with a form ofartificial intelligence to not only change the narrowcast region earlierthan scheduled but also change the content, or Communique within the newregion. An example would be to expand the Communique region alonghighway arterials leaving the stadium, change the Communique content andinsert advertising for restaurants for hungry ball game spectators.

Summary

The communique system for cellular communication networks operates withexisting cellular communication networks to provide communiquecommunication services to subscribers. The Communique can beunidirectional (broadcast) or bidirectional (interactive) in nature andthe extent of the Communique can be network-wide or narrowcast, whereone or more cells and/or cell sectors are grouped to cover apredetermined geographic area or demographic population or subscriberinterest group to transmit information to subscribers who populate thetarget audience for the narrowcast transmissions.

What is claimed:
 1. A method of operating a communique system forproviding a communique, constituting program content concurrentlydelivered to a plurality of subscribers, who are equipped with wirelesssubscriber devices, via a cellular communication network that includes aplurality of cell sites, each of which provides a plurality of wirelesscommunication channels in a cell that covers a predetermined volume ofspace around a cell site transmitting antenna, comprising: selecting atleast one of said plurality of cell sites to provide a communique to aplurality of subscribers who are authorized to receive said communiqueand who are served by said selected plurality of cells, independent ofthe presence of subscribers who are authorized to receive saidcommunique and who are served by other cells of said cellularcommunication network; and routing data, constituting said communique,from a selected program source to cell sites associated with saidselected cells for concurrent transmission to wireless subscriberdevices of subscribers who are authorized to receive said communique andwho are served by said selected cells, in at least one of said selectedcells said transmission to said plurality of wireless subscriber devicesbeing effected concurrently to more than one of said plurality ofwireless subscriber devices via a one of said plurality of wirelesscommunication channels.
 2. The method of claim 1 further comprising thestep of: enabling each of said plurality of wireless subscriber devicesto receive said information via said one of said plurality of wirelesscommunication channels.
 3. The method of claim 2 wherein said step ofenabling comprises: identifying each of said plurality of wirelesssubscriber devices via a communique address assigned to said pluralityof wireless subscriber devices to enable the cell sites to recognizeeach of said plurality of wireless subscriber devices, whose communiqueaddress constitutes an identity that is common to said plurality ofwireless subscriber devices.
 4. The method of claim 3 wherein said stepof identifying comprises: assigning a common MIN as said communiqueaddress assigned to said plurality of wireless subscriber devices toenable the cell sites to recognize each of said plurality of wirelesssubscriber devices, whom communique address constitutes an identity thatis common to said plurality of wireless subscriber devices.
 5. Themethod of claim 2 wherein said step of enabling comprises: registeringat least one of said plurality of wireless subscriber devices touniquely identify said at least one wireless subscriber device; andauthorizing said at least one wireless subscriber device to receive asubscriber selected communique.
 6. The method of claim 1 wherein saidstep of routing operates in at least one information distribution modeselected from the class of information distribution modes including:push, pull, and combinations of push/pull information distributionmodes.
 7. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of selectingcomprises: defining a set of said cells to provide a communique to atleast one of: a predetermined geographic area, a demographic population,and a subscriber interest group.
 8. The method of claim 7 wherein saidstep of defining comprises: identifying, in response to occurrence of anevent, a temporal and spatial extent of said communique; and translatingsaid identified temporal and spatial extent into said set of said cells.9. The method of claim 8 wherein said step of defining furthercomprises: dynamically updating said temporal and spatial extent. 10.The method of claim 1 wherein said step of selecting comprises:activating said at least one of said plurality of cell sites to transmitsaid communique, with each of said at least one of said plurality ofcell sites using the same frequency of transmission for said communique.11. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of selecting comprises:creating temporal and spatial extent of narrowcast in the contentdomain.
 12. The method of claim 11 wherein said step of creatingtemporal and spatial extent comprises: defining program segments for aplurality of communiques that are excerpted from a program stream in atleast one of said plurality of cell sites.
 13. The method of claim 12further comprising the steps of: transmitting a program stream to saidplurality of wireless subscriber devices served by said selected atleast one of said plurality of cell sites; and transmitting programstream parsing control signals to said plurality of wireless subscriberdevices served by said selected at least one of said plurality of cellsites to define at least one communique that is excerpted from saidprogram stream.
 14. The method of claim 13 further comprising the stepsof: transmitting a program stream to a plurality of cell sites; andtransmitting program stream parsing control signals to said at least oneof said plurality of cell sites to define at least one communique thatis excerpted from a program stream in said at least one of saidplurality of cell sites.
 15. The method of claim 14 further comprisingthe steps of: generating in said plurality of cell sites, a plurality ofcommuniques from said received program stream and said program streamparsing control signals; and transmitting said plurality of communiquesto said plurality of wireless subscriber devices served by said selectedat least one of said plurality of cell sites.
 16. The method of claim 13further comprising the step of: generating in said plurality of cellsites, a plurality of subframes from said received program stream andsaid program stream parsing control signals for transmission to saidplurality of wireless subscriber devices served by said selected atleast one of said plurality of cell sites.
 17. The method of claim 16further comprising the steps of: generating in said plurality of cellsites, program stream subframe parsing control signals to define atleast one communique that is excerpted from a subframe of said programstream; and transmitting said received program stream subframe and saidprogram stream subframe parsing control signals to said plurality ofwireless subscriber devices served by said selected at least one of saidplurality of cell sites.
 18. The method of claim 1 wherein said step ofselecting comprises: receiving program content from a plurality ofprogram sources; and combining said received program content into aplurality of program streams which comprise a combination of variousforms of media including at least one of: audio, video, graphics, text,data.
 19. A communique system for providing a communique, constitutingprogram content concurrently delivered to a plurality of subscribers whoare equipped with wireless subscriber devices, via a cellularcommunication network that includes a plurality of cell sites, each ofwhich provides a plurality of wireless communication channels in a cellthat covers a predetermined volume of space around a cell sitetransmitting antenna, comprising: processor means for selecting at leastone of said plurality of cells to provide a communique to a plurality ofsubscribers who are authorized to receive said communique and who areserved by said selected cells, independent of the presence ofsubscribers who are authorized to receive said communique and who areserved by other cells of said cellular communication network; and routermeans for routing data, constituting said communique, from a selectedprogram source to cell sites associated with said selected cells forconcurrent transmission to wireless subscriber devices of subscriberswho are authorized to receive said communique and who are served by saidselected cells, in at least one of said selected cells said transmissionto said plurality of wireless subscriber devices being effectedconcurrently to more than one of said plurality of wireless subscriberdevices via a one of said plurality of wireless communication channels.20. The communique system of claim 19 further comprising: authorizationmeans for enabling each of said plurality of wireless subscriber deviceto receive said information via said one of said plurality of wirelesscommunication channels.
 21. The communique system of claim 20 whereinsaid authorization means comprises: subscriber identification means foridentifying each of said plurality of wireless subscriber devices via acommunique address assigned to said plurality of wireless subscriberdevices to enable the cell sites to recognize each of said plurality ofwireless subscriber devices, whose communique address constitutes anidentity that is common to said plurality of wireless subscriberdevices.
 22. The communique system of claim 21 wherein said subscriberidentification means comprises: subscriber address means for assigning acommon MIN as said communique address assigned to said plurality ofwireless subscriber devices to enable the cell sites to recognize eachof said plurality of wireless subscriber devices, whose communiqueaddress constitutes an identity that is common to said plurality ofwireless subscriber devices.
 23. The communique system of claim 20wherein said authorization means comprises: registration means forregistering at least one of said plurality of wireless subscriberdevices to uniquely identify said at least one wireless subscriberdevice; and channel assigning means for authorizing said at least onewireless subscriber device to receive a subscriber selected communique.24. The communique system of claim 19 wherein said router means operatesin at least one information distribution mode selected from the class ofinformation distribution modes including: push, pull, and combinationsof push/pull information distribution modes.
 25. The communique systemof claim 19 wherein said processor means comprises: spatial temporalcommunique manager means for defining a set of said cells to provide acommunique to at least one of: a predetermined geographic area, ademographic population, and a subscriber interest group.
 26. Thecommunique system of claim 25 wherein said spatial temporal communiquemanager means comprises: means, responsive to occurrence of an event,for identifying a temporal and spatial extent of said communique; andmeans for translating said identified temporal and spatial extent intosaid set of said cells.
 27. The communique system of claim 26 whereinsaid spatial temporal communique manager means further comprises: meansfor dynamically updating said temporal and spatial extent.
 28. Thecommunique system of claim 19 wherein said processor means comprises:means for activating said at least one of said plurality of cell sitesto transmit a communique, with each of said at least one of saidplurality of cell sites using the same frequency of transmission forsaid communique.
 29. The communique system of claim 19 wherein saidprocessor means comprises: program database means for creating atemporal and spatial extent narrowcast in the content domain.
 30. Thecommunique system of claim 29 wherein said program database meanscomprises: database data means for defining program segments for aplurality of communiques that are excerpted from a program stream in atleast one of said plurality of cell sites.
 31. The communique system ofclaim 30 further comprising: network interface means for transmitting aprogram stream to said plurality of wireless subscriber devices servedby said selected at least one of said plurality of cell sites; andcontrol signal means for transmitting program stream parsing controlsignals to said plurality of wireless subscriber devices served by saidselected at least one of said plurality of cell sites to define at leastone communique that is excerpted from said program stream.
 32. Thecommunique system of claim 31 further comprising: router means, locatedin said plurality of cell sites, for generating a plurality ofcommuniques from said received program stream and said program streamparsing control signals; and base station transceiver means fortransmitting said plurality of communiques to said plurality of wirelesssubscriber devices served by said selected at least one of saidplurality of cell sites.
 33. The communique system of claim 30 furthercomprising: network interface means for transmitting a program stream toa plurality of cell sites; and control signal means for transmittingprogram stream parsing control signals to said at least one of saidplurality of cell sites to define at least one communique that isexcerpted from a program stream in said at least one of said pluralityof cell sites.
 34. The communique system of claim 33 further comprising:router means, located in sold plurality of cell sites for generating aplurality of subframes from said received program stream and saidprogram stream parsing control signals for transmission to saidplurality of wireless subscriber devices served by said selected atleast one of said plurality of cell sites.
 35. The communique system ofclaim 34 further comprising: content parsing means, located in saidplurality of cell sites, for generating program stream subframe parsingcontrol signals to define at least one communique that is excerpted froma subframe of said program stream; and base station transceiver meansfor transmitting said received program stream subframe and said programstream subframe parsing control signals to said plurality of wirelesssubscriber devices served by said selected at least one of saidplurality of cell sites.
 36. The communique system of claim 19 whereinsaid router means comprises: interface means for receiving programcontent from a plurality of program sources; and content schedulingmeans for combining said received program content into a plurality ofprogram streams, each of which comprises at least one media from theclass of media including: audio, video, graphics, text, data.